A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

What to check before you sign that contract

The phone call I received from a newsagent yesterday was all too familiar. They wanted to get out of a contract they had signed a year back and wanted to know if I had any ideas. The five-year agreement was not working for them. They say they were losing money as a result. The problem is that the contract lists few obligations of the supplier, thereby providing little in the way of an out.

Before you sign a contract for any product or service, check…

  1. That all supplier promises and obligations are documented to your complete satisfaction. I have seen contracts which document the newsagent’s obligations without covering the supplier’s obligations.
  2. That the agreement permits you to leave for valid reasons and without undue penalty. I have see a contract which does not provide fair reasons for leaving.
  3. That you can get out with reasonable notice.
  4. That there is a reasonable mediation process for dispute resolution.
  5. That you are not contractually responsible for their legal fees should you decide to take action against them.
  6. That you are in control of your business at all times. I have seen contracts where a supplier can act for you without you necessarily knowing they are doing this.
  7. That you are not blocked from accessing your business data. I have seen a situation where a newsagent has been denied access to business data because they refused to pay what they were told was an optional software support fee.
  8. That you are not precluded from switching to a competitor immediately on get out. I have seen contracts where you are blocked from switching to a competitor for a year after the end of the contract.
  9. That any claims made in the sales process against competitors are documented and signed by the supplier representative. If someone bagging a competitor refuses to do this you have every right to not believe them.

Check every contract carefully. Take your time. Get legal advice.

It’s easier to get out of a marriage than some of the contracts I have seen newsagents sign.

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Newsagency challenges

Art supply sales strong

I am seeing wild growth in sales of art supplies in some newsagencies. From the every day for school projects to supplies for local painters, art sales are up on several newsagencies for which I have been fortunate to see data. These are all businesses with a permanent art department which is well managed.

If you have the room and don’t have a permanent art department right now, it could be a good move.  I know of newsagents who have customers travelling 50km because of their range and prices. Becoming a destination is mission-critical for newsagents.

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art supplies

Promoting That’s Life and puzzle book

We placed the slim holder for the That’s Life Puzzler On The Go with the That’s Life magazine. I like the pocket Pacific Magazines provided for this as it makes it easier to co-locate the small format title with the main magazine itself. we will be careful to ensure that it does not harm sales of That’s Life.

While we have stock of That’s Life Puzzler On The Go with our crossword and puzzle titles, it is more likely to sell to a That’s Life reader – hence the value of easily placing the title in this location.

We will keep the cardboard pocket in this location as long as it holds up. It’s well made so I’d expect at least three months of life from it.  We take care of all of these display units but do discard them once the do not meet our standards.

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magazines

Promoting Queen’s Diamond Jubilee souvenir

We are promoting The Australian Women’s Weekly Queen’s Diamond Jubilee souvenir edition at the main counter with this display as well as with tactical placement in the usual location for AWW.

This is a title to be promoted heavily to make the most of the short to medium term opportunity for newsagents. Other magazine retailers will only act in an average way … newsagents have an opportunity to promote creatively and tactically  and drive excellent sales for our channel as a result.

The product itself feels wonderful, quite luxurious. It’s is targeted well at the ideal shopper.

Interest for this title will peak over the next week to ten days with all the celebrations going on. It’s hard to say what will happen from then.  This is why we are using prime space to promote the title.

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magazines

Promoting New Idea Masterclass

We are pleased to see another New Idea Masterclass title out and are promoting this latest issue with an aisle end display facing all shoppers as they enter our women’s magazines aisle.

We also have New Idea Masterclass in a full cover display with our food titles.  We plan weekend promotion with newspapers as well – impulse business.

It’s clever timing bringing out a title called Masterclass during the winning of MasterChef.

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magazines

Promoting Women’s Weekly Diamond Jubilee special edition

We are going all out promoting The Women’s Weekly Diamond Jubilee Special Edition.  This is the photo of a terrific display by the team at our Watergardens store. It’s at the front, facing the mall.

I love the choice of gold for the base of the display and how the poster is placed in the middle.

This is a title for newsagents to go hard with from day one.  We have a brief window to grab sales.

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magazines

New Orleans newspaper goes from 7 days to 3 days a week

The Times Picayune, a seven day a week newspaper serving New Orleans has announced it is cutting four days of print editions to publish on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the most valuable for advertisers.

According to USA Today, the average paid circulation of The Times Picayune newspaper was 133,557.  I mention this to provide context to readers here. At 133,557 the publishing company made a call to cut print from seven to three days a week based an assessment of costs versus revenue.

Here’s part of the announcement (Matthews is thePresident of the company to manage the print and online content):

Mathews said the three days of publication were chosen in part so that the print edition is distributed across the entire week, but also because Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays have proved to be the most valuable days for the newspaper’s advertisers.

Mathews said the changes coming in the fall were necessitated by revolutionary upheaval in the newspaper industry. These changes made it essential for the news-gathering operation to evolve and become digitally focused, while continuing to maintain a strong team of professional journalists who have a command of the New Orleans metro area.

They are creating a new corporate structure to manage the combined online and print business. A bunch of people working on the existing newspaper will lose their jobs as you’d expect.

Here is another interesting quote from the announcement:

“We did not make this decision lightly,” said Mathews. “It’s the toughest part of transitioning from a print-centric to a digitally-focused company. Our employees make us the company we are today, and we will work hard during this transition to treat all of them with the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication they’ve shown over the years.”

Three smaller daily newspapers from the same family company are also cutting days published.  The Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times will switch to publishing three days a week and increase focus on online access to news.

These newspapers are not the first nor will they be the last to reduce the days of the week they publish print editions.

I thought carefully before posting this news here because in then past when I have written about similar events some have commented that I am talking newspapers down and others have said it won’t happen here. There has been little discussion about how we should / could respond.

The changes we are seeing in newspaper print days in thenUS will come here. It is not a matter of it but when. I don’t see this as bad for newsagents. rather I see it as a business planning opportunity.

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Media disruption

Leveraging One Direction interest for Total Girl sales

Newsagents with plenty of young teen and tween girls in their community should treat the latest issue of Total Girl magazine different to usual. The One Direction cover is certain to drive sales. I saw this first hand yesterday when a young girl got her parents to pay for the bagged magazine on the strength of the One Direction cover shot. She was only in the shop so mum could buy a birthday card for a party they were going to later in the day.

I’m expecting we will sell out of Total Girl. That’s the plan. We are chasing this by making sure the title is well placed with other One Direction titles which continue to sell well.

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marketing

Making the most of the Better Homes and Gardens opportunity

We have been promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in several locations in the newsagency including this pillar-based display.

There is no doubt that Better Homes and Gardens responds very well to promotional attention. Tactical placement at the counter or with newspapers works especially well for us over the weekends as I often note here.  (I keep mentioning this as some newsagents are surprised when I tell them face to face.)

While this issue is less than a week on-sale, results are already excellent for us thanks to the extra work being put in by the team to make the most of the opportunity.

We will leave this pillar-based display up for another week even though we will be challenged for space given the promotions coming out this week.

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magazines

Sunday marketing tip: connecting with local clubs

Newsagencies are the ideal businesses for connecting with local hobby and special interest clubs given the range of magazines we sell and the connection we have with clubs in other ways.

The types of local clubs and community groups I am thinking of are:

  1. Knitting.
  2. Crochet.
  3. Genealogy.
  4. History.
  5. Cooking.
  6. Stamp collecting.
  7. Train.
  8. Gun.
  9. Hunting.
  10. Dogs.
  11. Cats.
  12. Horses.
  13. Outdoors – hiking and camping.
  14. Parents.
  15. Retiree community activity groups.
  16. Nationality based groups.

Thinking about the above list, just about every town has a historical society with members. It’s clubs and groups like this which would not usually be on our radar when they should.

We could connect with these businesses in a number of ways:

  1. Offering discounts to members on magazines and products.
  2. Getting products from suppliers to give away to the groups.
  3. Maybe funding a once a year event.
  4. Giving them a place to meet – some country newsagencies have considerable space out the back.
  5. Providing free resources – paper, photocopying and the like.
  6. Hosting a noticeboard for their events and promotion.
  7. Providing advance access to products of likely interest to them.

This is what being a community business is all about – connecting with the community but in a way which helps them and helps the business. There is no other local business which could connect with many of the community groups I ave listed as well as newsagents could.

I know many newsagents who connect with local groups already.  Those who don’t should and those who do could consider enhancing their connection to drive loyalty, word of mouth and, ultimately, sales.

Newsagents can own this immunity connection. This is why we should all engage in it in our local communities – with multiple clubs.

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newsagency marketing

Finally, we get Dumbo Feather

We have been trying to get Dumbo Feather on the shelves for a while since I met the editor and publisher last year. Anyway, we have the title now. This is an important title as it added to the selection of funky and intelligent titles we are building for twenty somethings plus – an often forgotten group of shoppers in newsagencies.

Dumbo Feather is an Australian title, out of Melbourne. It’s a title which shoppers would have looked for in Borders and with Borders stores now closed they would look in a newsagency. We are working to expand our range of these magazines, magazines with intelligent content which people will seek out and loyally purchase from you.

I am glad we have found Dumbo Feather. I encourage other newsagents to check it out. It is distributed by Network Services.

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magazines

The Australian promotes digital offer

News Limited at least let newsagents know they were promoting their digital offer for The Australian this weekend with this email:

Dear Agent,

On Saturday we will be running a post-it-note on the front of The Weekend Australian.

This note will offer readers the opportunity to join up for a free 28 day digital trial with full access to our website.

At the end of the 28 day trial readers will be offered via email a choice of print + digital bundles as a subscription offer.

Kind Regards

Maybe it was to give newsagents a heads-up to be ready to remove the post it notes.

A better approach from News would be to pay newsagents an acquisition fee plus a trail fee for renewals for the next, say, five fears.

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Media disruption

Price does not drive shopper loyalty as Gerry Harvey is finding

Gerry Harvey says he doesn’t know why there is negativity toward him – he was on TV again this week saying this.  His Harvey Norman retail business grew on the back of a price pitch and their relentless promotion of easy access to finance.  The company is not remembered for promoting customer service or brands. The TV and radio ads were all about price.

There is no shopper loyalty when people purchase on price.

Now, with sales falling and profits sliding, Gerry wonders why there is negativity toward him … he has not built a sustainable relationship with his customers. This is what happens when you promote almost solely on price.

While a price pitch may get you some extra sales today, it is the easiest differentiator for a competitor to attack you on tomorrow.

In today’s world of easier than every price comparison and of new-model online retail operations, in Gerry Harvey’s space it really is about price and he has been caught with an out of date and expensive model that struggles to compete.

Newsagents who promote price as a differentiating factor over the long-term and outside of seasonal sales face the Gerry Harvey problem.

Newsagents also risk a challenge down the track when the transition from print to digital reaches a tipping point, when more lottery purchases are transacted online than in retail and when more emotions are expressed digitally than via a greeting card.

We need to work today to ensure that we are not the Gerry Harvey of tomorrow as there will be no parachute and no pity.

It is lonely sitting atop an outdated business model.

Actions we take in our newsagencies today can help ensure that this will not be us. But it’s up to us. Our future is in our own hands.

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Newsagency management

Cool wraparound for Daily Telegraph

The translucent wraparound for The Daily Telegraph yesterday was pretty cool.  It was a clever way to promote the Vivid festival which has just started in Sydney.  While the main story was covered, you could see it there and you didn’t have to peel anything off to get to it.

I see this as quite different to the post-it type ads as it connects the paper with a community event.

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Newspapers

Promoting food magazines at the counter

As part of our Autumn / Winter feature we are promoting a carefully selected range of food titles at the sales counter.  We are running this counter promotion for a week after which we will assess and either replace or tweak to keep it fresh.

There is nothing special about the display, it took a couple of mints to put together once we had selected the tilters we wanted to feature.

Already we are seeing magazines selected from the display and added to baskets as shoppers step to the counter to make their purchases. This is a delight to see – every dollar added is a bonus we cherish.

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magazines

Win one of two free AFR.COM subscriptions here

Okay folks, who wants a free 1-year subscription to AFR.COM the iPad app and website for The Australian Financial Review. Thanks to the generosity of Fairfax, I have two free one-year subs to give away – along with 19 other bloggers in Australia. Each subscription is valued at $680.

To enter, please comment on this post and tell me in 25 words or less a positive story about your newsagency business. It could be something you have done, a customer experience or a community experience … it must connect back to your newsagency.  The competition will be open for a week, to June 1.

Fairfax gave me a free one-year subscription to AFR.COM and I am enjoying it. I get the approach Fairfax is taking is seeking out digital subscribers rather than sitting back and reacting. Their proactive approach to change is what we need to do in our own businesses.

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Media disruption

Inaccurate claims on XchangeIT by Access POS

The Access POS software company has published a claim that it is the only software company with 100% XchangeIT file integrity. The claim is misleading in my in that it does not reflect all compliance measures tracked by XchangeIT. It is claim that XchangeIT has been asked to approach Access POS to withdraw . Besides the inaccuracy, software companies are under confidentiality with XIT.

I know a bit about XchangeIT standards as my newsagency software company, Tower Systems,  participated in developing the file structures and standards at the heart of newsagent EDI, the structures and standards on which XchangeIT standards are based.

With more than 1,800 newsagents as customers, Tower Systems has 1,000 more newsagents using its software than any other software company. Access POS is trying to make out that they are bigger and better than they are. I respect the 90 or so newsagents using their software but note that size will matter as the newsagency channel consolidates.

Consolidation is one of the reasons I purchased the NewsPOS software business. Access POS claims that the NewsPOS business is closed.  It is not closed – NewsPOS newsagents continue to use the software, they get support … nothing has changed except for the ownership of the company. AccessPOS knows this.

Things can get feisty between newsagency software companies.  I’ll be in court in a few weeks defending action brought on by POS Solutions in which they complain about why and how 200+ of their newsagent customers came to switch to Tower Systems.

I stand by every claim I have made about my software and my software company.

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Ethics

Where do you put Feng Shui magazine?

I have been contacted by Fraymond Lew, publisher of Feng Shui World magazine – distributed here by IPS.  Fraymond has contacted me seeking advice on how to help newsagents sell more copies of the specialised title.  It’s terrific he has reached out to newsagents.

Here is some information from Fraymond which could help newsagents:

The magazine itself is more of a lifestyle magazine that mainly caters to women. I would love for it to be placed in the women’s lifestyle section but can’t seem to figure out how to convince the newsagents to do that. I some how think that that would help or I could be wrong altogether.

Please if you can give an insight or advice on what I can do to make the magazine sell better it would be very much appreciated. you can email me or call my shop 03 90786596 or on my mobile 0413731835. Thanks.

I am being a bit lazy passing on the request here but I hope newsagents do contact Fraymond with ideas. It’s niche titles like this which can help us retain special interest customers.

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magazines

Promoting Handmade magazine at the counter

We are promoting Handmade from EMG at the counter this week as it fits with a theme around Autumn / Winter related magazine titles we are featuring elsewhere.

Pitching the $26 with of magazines at $9.95 shows it off as a specials offer. That’s what we are going for with this counter placement.

We plan to leave Handmade in place until Monday morning when we will assess. Like any counter offer, it has to pay its way.

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magazines

Growing awesome newsagencies and awesome newsagents

Is that possible? Can we grow an awesome newsagency? I wonder some times with people being so quick to talk newsagency businesses down – Jeff Kennett, Bill Shorten … even those representing newsagents. Everyone says how tough retail is and how tough some of the issues facing newsagents are. And they leave it at that.

I say it’s tough sometimes. But retail has always been tough.

In the middle of the changes and challenges lies opportunity, opportunity which allows us to become awesome. It’s a pity that those who say it’s tough don’t offer something in response to their observation.

Yes, I really do mean awesome.  I am so lucky that I get to talk to some awesome newsagents every day. On Monday, for example, I was talking with a newsagent who has had a corker of a trading quarter, banking the results of 10% sales growth over the same quarter last year. He did it through hard work and backing his judgement.

Last week I spoke to a regional newsagent who has created an exclusive service which makes their newsagency the place people will travel an hour ow two to visit.

Just yesterday I was standing in front of a tired run down newsagency which was crying out for an awesome make-over. Without spending any money and investing just a few days and retraining team members this business could be on the way to being awesome.

I reckon too many newsagents get lost in our past of being a servant to a few suppliers who themselves are still locked in the past in some areas of their businesses.  The newsagents doing great are those walking to the beat of their own drum, newsagents who are taking a good look around and choosing this path which they want for their business.  While some newsagents and suppliers talk us down and shake their heads worrying about tough times, these awesome newsagents are craning to look beyond the horizon because that’s where they want to be – ahead of the curve. It’s where there is fun, excitement and profit.

Yes, I bang on about suppliers who frustrate me and some of the bad stuff which happens to newsagents. But I also write plenty about the success of playing with the model, experimenting with new product categories and pursuing change.  There are suppliers who are doing good things with and for newsagents. Some long-term suppliers and some new suppliers.

What irks me is those in the channel who talk it down, going on about tough conditions. For some it’s like they have to do this to match their own achievements. I care less about these people.

I want to see more awesome newsagents and more awesome newsagency businesses out there. More success stories. Now networking about positive things happening in our businesses. Success breeds success, no doubt about that. We have to talk more about this. And if we aren’t enjoying success, we need to make the tough decisions to move which is in the way of us enjoying success.

Our biggest asset is our independence. Our biggest liability is our independence.

We need more awesome newsagents and awesome newsagencies, these businesses are our future. Making them ought to be mission critical.

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Newsagency opportunities
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